Tuesday, January 11, 2011

An emaciated pit bull is older, happier and much more in demand than expected after her rescue from a ditch near Courtice, a Humane Society of Durham Regional investigator said Tuesday. Since a Good Samaritan found the starving dog staggering beside a road near Courtice on Saturday, Gracie has bounded back showing good people skills — and is even friendly with cats and other dogs, investigator Debby Houghton said. And since her plight appeared in the Toronto Sun on Tuesday, “we’ve got some information” that Houghton hopes will lead to the most recent owner. Even better, “we have a couple of people interested in adopting her,” she said. Housed at a canine foster home, Gracie needs to add some flesh over her obvious rib cage before she’ll be ready for a new owner in about two weeks, Houghton said. The dog is 6 1/2 years old, not five as first thought and is under a veterinarian’s supervision. That’s important under a 2005 provincial pit bull ban that requires a foundling to be destroyed unless there is proof it was born in Ontario and is neutered. “We have the proof,” Houghton said, adding that also covers two older males rescued since late November. Percy, 10, and with health problems, will likely remain at the Whitby shelter or possibly in foster care, she said. But Gracie as well as Chester — a nine-or 10-year-old pitbull rescued from a Port Perry area farmhouse after his owner moved to B.C. — “are doing fine,” Houghton said. Anyone with information should call the Humane Society at 905-665-7430.